Steampunk rat from the 20s

[Barkit]

Hi everyone,

I recently bought an old (yet unidentified) bike from the 20s-30s which sat for almost a century in a barn and I made a rat rod out of it:

Custom-DIY-el Cheapo emergency rear brake system :

I can post more pics if anyone's interested.

Cheers

 

[raggedjim]

Very nice! Welcome to the site, Rg

 

[JimK]

I LIKE IT! Very nice.

JimK

 

[QuickSand]

Did you make your own truss rods? Very stylish!
A good bike at the right place makes the perfect picture! Keep them coming.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Nice work!

Luke.

 

[kingfish254]

Welcome to RRB
Nice work

 

[Barkit]

Thanks for your comments, I really appreciate!

@ QuickSand: no I didn't make them, I bought the fork bumpers separately.

Yet some other pictures :

The bike features few interesting details:

Ghetto chain link with bolt and nut (apparently this was used as a "quick link" on old prewar bikes - not sure about that though...).

Regarding the rear brake, I needed a powerful (as far as braking power can go with rubber pads...) system to support the - rather weak - front rod brake in case of emergency braking. After a lot of tinkering, this is the best system I came up with:

You just pull the cable running along the top tube by hand, pretty muh like you would have done in old tramways to tell the driver to stop .
Initially, I tried to control the rear brake through the rod brake handle mounted onto the handlebar but the system was way too tricky to work good.
In the end, I love this system, the pulleys really match the aesthetic of the bike in my opinion and it works as intended.

The "siren" is an old item I got on ebay from 1920 used for duck hunting:

The sound is quite loud and most importantly...horrible (try to figure what a coughing rusted asthmatic robot would sound like and you will pretty much get the sound). All in all the perfect klaxon for a rat!

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Very cool details! You may want to check that bolt in the chain though, looks like it might be a bit worn through, if it snaps while you are really cranking on the pedals you can get badly injured, I once went over the handlebars on my old BMX because of that...

Luke.

 

[Barkit]

Very cool details! You may want to check that bolt in the chain though, looks like it might be a bit worn through, if it snaps while you are really cranking on the pedals you can get badly injured, I once went over the handlebars on my old BMX because of that...

Luke.

You are right, I noticed that already but very good point nonetheless. On the picture it looks worse than it actually is but that's definitly something I have to take care of rapidly.

 

[Carbon]

Very cool, great work man, if you had those pics in black and white it would look right out of the time, nice shots.

 

[whitefiretiger]

Cool bike totally loving it & I normally don't like straight bar bikes.

 

[Barkit]

Thanks for your positive comments, that is the best reward I can get for the hard work!

 

[whitefiretiger]

Thanks for your positive comments, that is the best reward I can get for the hard work!

It is rewarding. I blew a guys mind the other day when he saw the shifter on my current build. (If your interested http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/85410/)

The steampunk twist to your bike is settle but there and gives it a cool edge.

 

[Barkit]

It is rewarding. I blew a guys mind the other day when he saw the shifter on my current build. (If your interested http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/85410/)

The steampunk twist to your bike is settle but there and gives it a cool edge.

I just had a look to yout shifter, it is indeed very cool, that is inspiration for a future build!